Newspapers to go bust? Perhaps, but some bankers are still out there buying shares

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One of the City’s more careworn nostrums suggests that calling the bottom of a market is a bit like trying to catch a falling knife. Another (offered with apologies to Mr Dylan) suggests that the darkest hour comes right before the dawn.

The former is a charter for cautious investors, the latter for risk takers. Both are around in abundance at the moment.

Simultaneously, however, it emerged that Goldman Sachs — the only one of Wall Street’s investment banks to emerge broadly untroubled from the credit crunch — waded into the market last Wednesday to spend approximately £18m on Trinity Mirror shares.

Goldman Sachs now owns 7.8% of Trinity Mirror. Patently, this is not the kind of thing you do if you believe that administration (or liquidation) is a real possibility.

Others have bought more modestly in recent weeks. Two weeks ago, Schroders — already Trinity Mirror’s biggest institutional investor — shelled out some £1.5m to take its holding in Trinity Mirror up to 14.5%. Another fund manager, Old Mutual, spent slightly less than £1m to increase its stake to 5%.

The world is rapidly dividing into those who believe that the recession will claim some big corporate victims — and those who believe that they can profit from the carnage. Take your positions, ladies and gentlemen: the dance is about to begin. . .